


Pet-Sitting

by SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher (UglyJackal)



Category: Star Stable
Genre: Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 03:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11569086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher
Summary: Jack looks after Prince Charming while Anastasia is out shopping





	Pet-Sitting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Burgie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/gifts).



Jack was watching LazyTown, which wasn’t an uncommon occurance, lying on Ydris’ bed. The wizard himself was bustling around with some magic or other - Jack sometimes didn’t pay attention - and every so often, he would look over Jack’s shoulder and chuckle at whatever was happening on the screen. 

‘What made you start watching this again? You had a spell where you weren’t interested in it whatsoever,’ Ydris remarked, moving onto writing something down in a large book.

‘I heard about Robbie’s actor’s cancer declared as terminal and everytime I tried to watch the show after that, I got upset,’ he said, pausing the video to talk, ‘and I thought it was best to just leave it for a little while, I knew I’d come back to it eventually.’

Ydris smiled. ‘And you’re not upset now?’

Jack shrugged. ‘Yes, but I’ll always be upset about it, especially when I hear the news that he’s died, but it won’t always hurt or make me cry,’ he said.

The wizard hummed and went back to his task. While Jack played his video again.

But not for long, as not two minutes later, it rang. Jack sighed and tipped his phone back to portait mode to see who was asking him to do some menial task for him today. He groaned as he saw the caller ID.

‘Who is it?’ the magician asked, looking up from his book.

‘Anastasia Silverglade,’ his boyfriend growled, hitting the green button.

‘ _Ah! Ellie, darling!_ ’ the woman’s voice trilled loudly down the line.

Jack bristled. Ydris glanced up in alarm, sensing his boyfriend’s drastic change of mood. ‘That’s not my name,’ he snarled.

‘ _Nonsense! Of course it is!_ ’

‘Have I ever introduced myself as anything other than “Jack” to you?’ he snapped.

‘ _People talk, dear, people talk_ ,’ Anastasia said, ‘ _anyway-_ ’

‘Let’s just get something straight, can we?’ Jack cut across her, ‘my name is _Jack_ , and that’s that, okay? You don’t have any right to call me something that I don’t want to be called, got it?’

There was silence for a moment, and Jack almost thought that she had hung up. But then there was a sigh. ‘ _Okay, dear,_ ’ she said, but she clearly didn’t like what Jack had told her. ‘ _Anyway, I rang because I wanted to ask you if you could look after my wittle baby, Prince Charming, for me while I’m out. There’s a very beautiful set of outfits that I would like to get my hands on. I’ll pay you well.’  
_

‘How long will you be gone?’ Jack asked, perking up a little at the chance of getting to spend some time with a dog.

‘ _Most of the day, I think. I’ll try to be home for about six in the evening though._ ’

‘Sure,’ he said, ‘why did you ring me?’

‘ _Erik said that you were a dab hand with animals; he’s seen you with the wild herd on the Peninsula,_ ’ she replied, ‘ _come over to my apartment, ASAP. Chiao, darling._ ’ And she hung up.

‘Are you sure that you want to go? I can come with you if you want,’ Ydris said.

Jack shook his head. ‘No, it’s fine, I don’t have to talk to her for very long until she goes out, and I get to spend time with a dog. You know how much I love dogs,’ he said, grinning.

The magician chuckled. ‘Yes, I do… I’ve seen your search history,’ he said, ‘Basset Hounds are a favourite?’

The rider grinned ever harder at the mention of the dog breed. ‘How could you not love them? They’re adorable… with their droopy eyes and their long ears, and…’ Jack trailed off, tearing up at the thought of the gorgeous animals.

Ydris gave him a hug, and wiped the tears from his eyes. ‘Go and fawn over Anastasia’s dog,’ he said, kissing Jack’s temple.

* * *

In almost no time at all, Jack was standing outside of Anastasia Silverglade’s apartment. He sighed and knocked. Almost immediately, the door was thrown open and there stood the woman herself, Prince Charming in her arms.

‘ _There_ you are, darling!’ she cried, ‘I thought you would never show up!’

‘Yep, here I am, in the flesh,’ Jack said dryly.

Anastasia lifted Prince up and brushed her nose to hers. ‘Mummy won’t be gone long, okay, babykins?’ she cooed, kissing the little dog, ‘you be good for Jacky here, yes?’

 _I won’t complain at Jacky,_ the man thought, _at least it’s not my deadname._ He was impressed that he didn’t have to correct Anastasia again.

‘Help yourself to any food that’s in the cupboards,’ she said, handing Prince over to Jack and returning to her normal voice (Jack wasn’t sure which was more annoying).

‘And Prince eats what?’

‘A little bit of whatever you have,’ she replied, already halfway down the corridor, ‘he especially likes chocolate ice cream from Leonardo’s!’ And she turned the corner and disappeared.

‘Chocolate?’ he said, aghast, ‘no wonder you look so miserable, she’s trying to kill you,’ he said to the dog.

He walked inside the apartment and looked around for a spare key, thankfully finding one on top of the fridge. He pocketed it and turned to Prince, who was standing on the sofa. 

‘First of all,’ Jack said, bending over and fiddling with the straps on the little dog’s outfit, ‘we’ll get rid of this fucking tutu.’ As soon as it was off, Prince wagged his tail and spun around in happy little circles.

‘There you go, buddy,’ he said, removing the pink bow as well, ‘I know how it feels to be a guy and dressed like a girl.’

He sat down on the sofa and propped his ankle on his knee. ‘So what do you like to do, Prince?’ he asked.

The dog, almost as an answer, padded over and curled up on Jack’s lap, closing his eyes for a snooze. Jack petted the little dog’s head and pulled out his phone. He glanced at his unlocked phone - still on the paused LazyTown video - and back at the now sound-asleep Chihuahua. He exited the video and clicked onto his camera. He took a quick picture of the little dog, who stirred a little at the click of the phone, and then went onto his text messages.

He clicked onto Z’s message thread.

Jack: _Look who trusted me with her dog_  
Jack: _“Image file sent_ ”  
Zelda: _What a good boy! Is that Anastasia’s dog?_  
Jack: _Yep, the one and only, Prince Charming_  
Zelda: _You took his little tutu and bow off?_  
Jack: _Of course I did_  
Zelda: _Ana won’t be happy when she gets home_  
Jack: _Fuck her, Prince is so much happier without it_  
Zelda: _I’d kill to hear you say that to her_  
Jack: _I think I’d be the one that was killed_  
Zelda: _Haha, true_  
Zelda: _Okay, I’ll leave you to enjoy yourself, text if you need any help ;)_  
Jack: _Dude, it’s a dog, I won’t need any help, you know what I’m like_  
Zelda: _Yeah, I do_  
Jack: _Was it a ploy to try and come and see the dog?_  
Zelda: _Mmmmmmmaybe_  
Jack: _If you wanna see the dog, come and see him. Ana’s out until, like, 6pm_  
Zelda: _Whoosh, here I come_  


Jack also sent the image to Louisa, who fawned over Prince just as Zelda had, but wasn’t able to visit. Jack promised to send her pictures throughout the day. _  
_

* * *

Jack was surprised that Z didn’t cry upon seeing the sleepy Chihuahua. She picked him up and cradled him in her arms, and gasped with an open mouth when he relaxed and started to snore. Jack chuckled at his friend’s face.

‘I love him, and I want him,’ Zelda said, looking up at Jack.

‘You can’t steal the fucking dog,’ he said, ‘I’d be strung up by my balls.’

His friend laughed. ‘And we wouldn’t want that,’ she said.

‘No, we wouldn’t, you’re right.’

Zelda left after an hour of cuddling Prince. She had things that she needed do, horses she needed to train, and her boyfriend to see. Jack told her to drop him a text if she missed the Chihuahua and he’d tell her if he was in the apartment or not so that she could come back and visit.

* * *

At three, Jack looked through the cupboards to find something for Prince to eat. He found some ready-cooked chicken and ham in the fridge, and pulled the cartons out. He had previously found Prince’s food bowl next to the sink, and began to cut some of the meat up for him. He looked down at his feet and saw the Chihuahua sitting down and staring up at him.

‘For such a spoiled little brat, you sure are well-behaved,’ Jack said as he put the bowl of food down for the dog to tuck into, ‘I thought you’d be tearing up the sofa and climbing on the counter to get at some food. I didn’t think you would just sleep for most of the morning.’

Prince wagged his tail.

* * *

‘Let’s see,’ Jack mumbled to himself, ‘is there a lead around here?’ He dug through wardrobes and drawers, checked coat hangers and mantlepieces, but he couldn’t find a single hint of a lead.

‘Guess what we’re gonna go and buy?’ he said, picking up the small dog.

He went over to the pet store that was a few streets away.

‘Good morning, Prince Charming!’ the cashier greeted cheerily.

‘It’s the afternoon, man,’ Jack said.

‘Oh… are you pet-sitting?’ Jack didn’t like the way that he was looked up and down.

He nodded his affirmative. ‘I’m just looking for a lead,’ he said.

‘Right over there.’ The cashier pointed over to the row of aisles, but didn’t offer any extra help.

‘Cheers,’ Jack mumbled.

Thankfully, he didn’t spend too long looking for the leads, and sighed as he looked at the several pink leads studded with fake diamonds, with matching collars and harnesses. He picked out a stylish blue lead with a little bit of glitter on it, so that Anastasia wouldn’t turn her nose up too quickly. He picked a matching harness instead of a collar because, from his experience, harnesses were better for dogs that tended to pull, so that they didn’t strangle themselves on a collar.

He paid for his items and set Prince on the counter while he fixed the harness to the little dog so that it wasn’t too tight and clipped on the lead. He looked up when the cashier asked, ‘Why is Prince Charming not in his usual attire?’

Jack set the dog on the floor, lead in hand, and then straightened up and stared at the cashier dead in the face. ‘Because he looked fucking stupid with it on and he’s a lot more comfortable without it,’ he said, and then turned around and left the store.

 

Jack took Prince for a much needed walk. The little dog was very happy to get out for once and smell all the smells, and trot along the pavement. Usually, he was just carried around by Anastasia.

Jack laughed as Prince jumped at a butterfly, trying to catch it in his jaws. ‘Leave the local insects alone, Prince,’ he chuckled.

They were just walking back up to the apartment, when Anastasia caught up to them. ‘Hello, my little baby!’ she cried.

Jack jumped and turned. He watched as the woman tried to juggle four large shopping bags and her small dog at the same time. ‘And there I was thinking that you were talking to me,’ Jack said, taking the bags off of her.

‘Whatever is this… thing on you, my wittle Pwince?’ Anastasia said with disgust.

‘It’s a harness,’ Jack said, walking back to her apartment with her, ‘I took Prince for a walk and couldn’t find a lead in the house, so I bought him one.’

‘Why is it _blue_?’ she said, starting to take it off, ‘and why does he not have his tutu on?!’

‘It’s blue because it suits him more than pink does, and he doesn’t have his tut on because he wasn’t happy in it,’ he replied, checking that he had his phone in his pocket and then putting the spare key on the counter.

‘He is happy in his tutu!’ Anastasia retorted.

‘No, he wasn’t,’ he argued, ‘it actually isn’t big enough for him, and dogs don’t like to be constricted.’

Anastasia snorted. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she spat. But before Jack could argue that yes, he did know what he was fucking talking about, she got some money out, handed it to him, and said, ‘Thank you for looking after my baby boy, and I may ask you to do it again some day.’

Jack nodded and shoved the money in his wallet. ‘I’d be glad to do it again, just ring if you need me,’ he said, and promptly left the apartment.

On the way home on the tram, Jack finally finished his episode of LazyTown that he had been watching earlier.


End file.
